CHAPTER FIFTEEN 

 PYGMIES OF THE ITURI FOREST 



FROM the Nile camp we motored to Arua and then 

 made om* officicJ entrance into the Belgian Congo 

 at Aru. The yomig Belgian in charge of the customs 

 was very accommodating, causing us the smallest 

 amount of inconvenience possible. After paying him 

 several thousand francs, which he assured me would 

 be returned at the opposite border, we motored over 

 excellent roads, reaching Adranga at dusk. Here I 

 found another customs officer, paying him a few thou- 

 sand francs more on things the first man had overlooked. 

 Next morning Maniki rushed in to say that white 

 men were beating the black men with whips, so I 

 strolled out to see what it was all about. The Belgian 

 officer was holding the regular Monday meeting and 

 giving orders for the week's work. In the Congo they 

 insist on able-bodied men doing a certain amount of 

 labor. This is quite a contrast to the Enghsh method 

 as practiced in Kenya, where most of the Negro men 

 are a useless blot on the landscape, the native women 

 being the beasts of burden who perform all the drudg- 

 ery, while the men strut about aping the white man. 

 In the Belgian Congo we saw few women at work, while 

 most of the men were occupied wdth some task. The 

 floggings to which Maniki drew my attention were ad- 

 ministered with a hippo whip by a huge Negro soldier, 

 at the orders of the officer, this method being used, in 



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